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| Latest News |
| Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy |  Our book Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy has recently been published in hardcover by Little, Brown in the UK to coincide with Nelson's 250th birthday. It has been a very enjoyable book to write, delving into the world of the lower deck, and we hope you will be surprised and fascinated by our discoveries. Most correspondence from readers comes to us from the USA, so we know that there will be a lot of you out there who will be very disappointed to learn that it will not be on sale in US bookstores. We'll let you know if this changes.'Roy and Lesley Adkins possess that rare knack among historians: merging the academic with the narrative and providing a riveting read which also casts light where it is dark' (Navy News November 2008) |  |
| Signed Copies | | We haven't been able to sign many copies of Jack Tar, but if you want any signed copies as presents or whatever, then the best bookstores to check are: Hatchards in Piccadilly, London; Waterstones Piccadilly in London; Waterstones in Trafalgar Square, London; and Foyles in Charing Cross Road in London. Also, keep an eye on both branches of Waterstones in Exeter, Devon, as well as the WH Smith branch there. These are our local bookstores, and we pop into them now and again. | |
| The Handbook of British Archaeology - completely revised! | | This book was first published in 1982 and has been in print almost continuously ever since. Although it was still selling very well, the publishers (Constable and Robinson) and ourselves decided that a major new edition was needed. We are very fortunate that Victoria Leitch and a team of experts has undertaken this work. This new edition has just been published, and it looks really good. There is a wonderful new chapter on post-medieval archaeology, and lots more on archaeological techniques. All the old chapters have been completely overhauled, with hundreds of new illustrations (all the old ones have been replaced). This is an absolute must-have book for anyone interested in archaeology. | |
| Latest Magazine Articles | | We write articles and occasionally review books for various magazines and newspapers. Our latest article to be published is in the US MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History for summer 2008 (vol. 20, no. 4). 'Don't Give Up the Ship!' is about the USS Chesapeake, in particular the incident with HMS Leopard in 1807 that almost led to war between the two countries, and the battle between the American frigate and HMS Shannon in June 1813. MHQ is a beautifully produced magazine with many high-quality illustrations, and our article is on pages 36 to 45. In the August issue of the BBC History Magazine (vol. 9 no. 8), we had an article called 'Hard Lives on the High Seas' (pages 33 to 37) in their 'Naval Special'. In the September issue of the magazine BBC Who Do You Think You Are?, we had an article on finding out if your ancestor served in Nelson's Navy. This magazine accompanies the high-profile BBC TV series of the same name, which traces the often surprising family history of well-known personalities, and this issue dealt with Jerry Springer. The latest (November 2008) issue of the magazine Ancestors (published by The National Archives) has an article by us called 'Jack Tar at leisure' (pages 36 to 41). The Sea is a new magazine devoted to all things coastal and marine. The November 2008 issue has excerpts from Jack Tar with lots of attractive illustrations (and a reader's offer for the book, something that most magazines and articles do) | |
| Forthcoming Events |  We gave several talks just after publication of The War for All the Oceans. The picture shows one of those events, at Waterstones in Torquay, where the staff joined in the spirit of things by dressing up as powder monkeys. Many thanks too to Brixham Museum for the loan of the cannon. We have no more talks arranged until February, when we will be giving a lunchtime talk on Jack Tar at the Theatre Royal in BATH at 12 noon on Friday 6th February 2009. More details about tickets will be posted here a bit later on. The next talk will be held in the library at IVYBRIDGE, near Plymouth, arranged by Ivybridge Library Friends. The library is in a new building called The Watermark and is half a mile from the railway station (address: The Watermark, Erme Court, Leonards Road, Ivybridge, PL21 0SZ. Website www.ivybridgewatermark.co.uk). The event will be from 8pm to 9.30pm, on Thursday 23rd April 2009. | |
| The War for All the Oceans |  The War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo is published by Little, Brown in the UK in hardback and in paperback by their Abacus imprint. It is published in the US by Viking Penguin in hardback, with a different (and rather wonderful) jacket design. The book is a narrative history of the war at sea from the time of Napoleon's rise to power to his final defeat. The period 1798 to 1815 - the Napoleonic Wars - has just about everything you could wish for in a book on naval hisory - large fleet actions such as the Battle of the Nile and Copenhagen; many duels between pairs or small groups of ships, such as HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake; combined operations like the disastrous Walcheren expedition; and attempts to destroy enemy ships with new inventions like torpedoes and rockets. This is the only book of its kind to relate the entire story of the struggle with Napoleon at sea, from the Battle of the Nile to Napoleon's final surrender after Waterloo seventeen years later, along with the little-known War of 1812 against America. Most naval histories stop at Nelson, but The War for All the Oceans shows that what came afterwards is just as gripping. Naval history is not just about broadsides and bloodshed, but the lives and experiences of real people, and extensive eyewitness accounts vividly portray aspects of life other than actual battles, including shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies and prisoners-of-war, all fascinating material for the family historian. 'Meticulously researched ... this lively narrative will delight students and fans of nautical history' (Publisher's Weekly, June 2007) 'This real-life action will delight fans of fictional heroes from the same war - Horatio Hornblower (C.S. Forester) and Richard Sharpe (Bernard Cornwell)' (Kirkus, May 2007) 'A rollicking, patriotic account of the Napoleonic Wars that will go down well with Master and Commander fans.' (Dominic Sandbrook, The Telegraph December 2006) 'A drama of blazing ships and broadsides and the awesome power of the elements' (John Crossland, The Sunday Times September 2006) 'A gripping portrayal of a little-known aspect of our history, told mainly by people who made that history.' (Colin White, The Observer October 2006) | |
| The War for All the Oceans: Audiobook | | We're very pleased that an unabridged audio version of our book, The War for All the Oceans is now available in the US. It is produced by Tantor Media and is narrated by the award-winning Patrick Girard Lawlor. There are two versions: an unabridged CD, list price $109.99, currently available on Amazon.com for $69.29, and a MP3 CD, $39.99. Of course, these audio versions will be on sale in many places, not just Amazon, but that's all we've had time to check out so far. Happy listening! | |
| The War for All the Oceans: US paperback |  The paperback of The War for All the Oceans was published in the US by Penguin on 29 July, so this will be perfect for all that holiday reading (so much easier than heavy hardcovers!). | |
| The Keys of Egypt: Japan paperback |  The Keys of Egypt has just been published in paperback in Japan. The title there is Rozetta-Stone-Kaidoku, and it is published by Shincho Sha, price 743 yen. | |
| Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle |  The famous Battle of Trafalgar took place on 21 October 1805, when a British fleet under Horatio Nelson defeated a Combined French and Spanish fleet under Villeneuve off Cape Trafalgar, which is situated on Spain’s south-west coast. The battle put paid to Napoleon’s ambitions to invade England and destroyed his naval power. The rejoicing in Britain was tinged with great sadness, because at this battle Nelson was killed. An enthralling book written by Roy Adkins, Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle, is available in paperback (Abacus). In the US it is published in paperback by Penguin, under the title of Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle that Changed the World. Spanish, Swedish and Japanese editions are also available.The book is aimed at all readers of non-fiction and relates the background to the battle, life aboard warships for the men, women and children, the battle itself, and the terrible aftermath with the dreadful storm. 'masterful ... a compelling account' (Bernard Cornwell, Mail on Sunday January 2005) 'Vivid, scrupulous, immensely moving, this is a terrific yarn' (The Independent May 2005) 'Almost cinematic in its snapshot images of direct action and very human reactions. Adkins sets himself a fast narrative pace that loads the story with explosive detail and fires it up with devilish humour' Stalingrad' (The Times May 2005) 'The blazing Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle is at least the equal of Stalingrad in blood, pace and telling detail, but it also boasts a welcome twist to the genre with a lacing of black humour.' (Independent on Sunday September 2004) | |
| Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome | | An updated edition of our Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome has recently been published in hardback by Facts On File in the US, price $50, though the Oxford University Press paperback version is still available, but is unrevised! This book provides a detailed explanation of various aspects of life in the ancient Roman world and is aimed particularly at students. | |
| Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece | | An updated edition of our Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece has recently been published in hardback by Facts On File, price $65. The paperback will still be available through Oxford University Press, but is unrevised! Like the Rome Handbook, the book is aimed primarily at students and provides an insight into three thousand years of ancient Greece. It is also published in Russian by the Moscow publisher Veche. | |
| Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon |  If you have the slightest interest in events in Iraq and Afghanistan, then this is the book to read! This highly topical book written by Lesley Adkins was published in hardback in 2003 and in paperback by Harper Perennial in 2004. It is published in hardback in the US by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St Martin’s Press. The true story of Empires of the Plain is set in Afghanistan, Iran (Persia), Iraq and India. As such, it is an essential and entertaining read for anyone wanting to understand the historical background of this often troubled region. The book concentrates on Henry Rawlinson, a fearless soldier, sportsman and imperial adventurer of the first rank, who spent twenty-five years from 1827 in the service of the East India Company. During this time he survived the dangers of disease and warfare, including the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War. A gifted linguist, fascinated by history and exploration, Rawlinson became obsessed with cuneiform, the world’s earliest writing. The key to understanding the many cuneiform scripts and languages was an immense inscription high on a sheer rock face at Bisitun (or Behistun) in the mountains of western Iran, carved on the orders of King Darius the Great of Persia over 2,000 years ago. Only Rawlinson had the physical and intellectual skills, courage, self-motivation and opportunity to make the perilous ascent and copy the monument. While based for many years in Baghdad, Rawlinson also became involved in the very first excavations of the ancient mounds of Mesopotamia, sites like Nineveh and Babylon. His decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions resurrected unsuspected civilizations, revealing intriguing details of everyday life and forgotten historical events. By proving to the astonished Victorian public that people and places in the Old Testament really existed (and that documents and chronicles had survived from well before the writing of the Bible), Rawlinson became a celebrity and assured his own place in history. 'Sir Henry Rawlinson was essentially James Bond in the flesh a century before Ian Fleming was born ... Well-told story of a life dedicated to scholarship, with great adventures and derring-do an unexpected bonus.' (Kirkus Reviews 2004). 'Empires of the Plain is a colourful account of a fascinating and little-known story. It combines scholarship with high adventure, and is enlivened by the larger-than-life character of Henry Rawlinson.’ (Sunday Times July 2003) 'insightful page-turner of a biography' (The Wall Street Journal December 2004) | |
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